The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [34]
Slash as deep as an inch if the dough seems lively, less if you aren’t too sure about it; small rolls take about ½ inch. The slash patterns sketched here give pretty baked results. For the long loaves, make a cut at each end, almost lengthwise, and almost to the middle of the bread. The third long diagonal is in the center. Slash round loaves to suit your fancy—rolls, too. The prettiest slashes are made by holding the knife so that the blade cuts sideways, almost as if it were peeling the crust, rather than cutting downward into the loaf. Done so, the slashes open upward as the loaf rises during its spectacular spring in the oven. If the cuts are directly downward, the loaf will open out and lie prostrate, not only less beautiful but less tall than it should be.
Bake the bread using one of the steaming methods that follow. When the crust begins to color, remove the source of steam and immediately lower the oven heat, because high heat without steam will burn the bread very quickly. When it is golden-brown and beautiful, and hollow-sounding if you thump its bottom with your fingertips, the bread is done. How long that takes depends on the size of the loaves or rolls, and the vagaries of your oven. Generally speaking, this bread bakes in less time than the ones we have described thus far. Giant round loaves, however, can take 45 minutes or more; small thin loaves or rolls may bake in as little as 10 minutes.
Some Methods for Steaming Bread
If French Bread were baked like a normal loaf of bread, its crust would be thick, tough, and pale because bread without added milk protein or sweetener can’t brown at moderate oven temperatures. Baked in the traditional way in a brick oven, very hot and steamy, though, the crust becomes beautifully rosy brown, thin and crispy-chewy, and the flavor of the bread is at its best, too. Most of us don’t have brick ovens in our kitchens, but a pretty good approximation of their effects can be had with simple everyday equipment—and without endangering life and limb. There are many ways to steam bread but we’ve found these effective and less hazardous than some other methods.
WETTING THE LOAF
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Spray or paint the proofed bread with warm water, slash it, and put it in the oven quickly so that as little heat escapes as possible. Repeat the painting or spraying every 3 to 5 minutes until the crust begins to brown nicely—this should take about three or four treatments, depending on your oven and your dough. Reduce oven heat to 350°F and bake until the bread is done, as suggested in the recipe.
Advantages of this method: it is very simple and requires no unusual equipment. It can be used with any shape or size of bread. Unfortunately it is effective only in ovens that can recover very quickly the heat lost when the door is open.
STEAMING THE OVEN
Place a small heavy skillet or other pan in the bottom of the oven when you preheat. When you put in the bread, pour one cup of boiling water into the pan, shutting the oven quickly. You can, if you like, use this technique in conjunction with the previous method.
This method is easy, but it works only with a very well-insulated oven—which, unfortunately, most latter-day ovens are not. It can be pretty stressful to the pan you use, too: make sure it is all metal, and one that you don’t mind getting warped or rusty.
OVEN TILES
These two methods will be enhanced if you line your oven with quarry tiles. More about this.
Instead of tiles you can use a flat baking stone. Either proof the bread directly on the stone and then put them together into the hot oven, or let the bread rise on floured canvas while the stone preheats along with the oven and them transfer the proofed bread to the stone. With the addition of steam, the home oven comes very close to the traditional brick oven for baking. (Still